BlizzCon 2015 - Overwatch What's New Panel

The Beta\r\rJeff Kaplan started off the panel by giving us some of the current beta statistics.\r82,000 total games have been played.\rThe average game time is 7:34.\rPharah is the most played hero in the beta.\rSymmetra has the highest win rate in the beta.\r\r\rConsoles\r\rIt was their goal from Day 1 to have this game on console. In addition, they wanted to make sure the game felt good to play on a controller.\r\rEach system will only play against other players of the same system. PC players will only play against PC players and so on.\r\rHollywood\r\rHollywood is a Payload map where you escort a direct named Halfred Glitchbot through the zone.\r\rThe map starts you off on the streets of Hollywood. After this, you head into a small choke point that leads to the Goldshire Studio. Continuing on is the Hollywood Backlot and then a retro space filming location.\r\r3 New Heroes\r\rMei\r\rOverwatch currently has a lot of soldiers so Mei is a scientist and Mei is a scientist for Eco Watchpoint in Antarctica. Mei managed to survive hoping for a rescue but it was a long time before she was discovered. Now she goes around activating all the Eco Watchpoints in the world.\r\rMei started off with a thick coat and a large gun, but it ended up looking a little too much like Zarya. The team then scrapped the idea and spawned the more casual Mei that we saw in the panels.\r\rEndothermic Blaster (Weapon) - The gun doesn't deal that much damage but the longer you keep it on the target, the slower the target moves until they are eventually stunned. It has an alternate fire to shoot icicles.\rCryo-Freeze (Shift) - Very similar to the Warcraft spell Ice Block. \rIce Wall (E)- Summon an impassable ice wall. Can be used under a player to lift them.\rBlizzard (Q)- Throw her robot snowball and deals damage in a large area and also stacks a slow (stacks with her weapon).\r\rD'Va\r\rUnder the South China Sea emerged a large Omics that attacked. MEKA used a large amount of drones to defend he city but was eventually was corrupted and used against the city.\r\rInstead the city creatures a number of piloted mechs and who better to control them than the city's top gamers.\r\rThe Mech suit went through multiple iterations including not being able to fly.\r\rPassive - When the Mech takes critical damage, D'Va is ejected and only has a small pistol to defend herself. Upon dealing or taking enough damage, D'Va is able to recall her mech.\rWeapon - Fusion Cannons - While firing, you are slowed.\rShift - Boosters - You are forced forwards, but can also fly.\rE - Defense Matrix - You create a matrix of energy in front of her which destroys all projectiles that impact the matrix.\rQ - Self-Destruct - She ejects from the mech and starts a 5 second countdown after which the mech explodes. It deals a large amount of damage to anyone nearby.\r\rGenji\r\rGenji is Hanzo's brother. Both of them were part of a ninja clan. Hanzo was the younger brother by Genji was out of line. Hanzo and Genji had an epic battle and Hanzo left Genji for dead. Overwatch found Genji and gave him a new body hoping that Genji would reveal the secrets to taking down the clan.\r\rOriginally, Hanzo and Genji were one hero but weapon swapping between a bow and sword did not work well. The two weapons were then split into two heroes.\r\rPassive - Double Jump\rWeapon - Shurikens - This ability has an alternate alternate fire that throws the shurikens in a fan.\rShift - Swift Strike - Leaps forward leaving a damage over time to whoever he hits. An elimination resets the cooldown.\rE - Deflect - Reflects all projectiles as your own towards your cursors.\rQ - Dragonblade - Genji pulls out a sword for 10 seconds dealing massive damage to whoever he hits.\r\rQ&A\r\rQ: With Overwatch coming to console, is there still going to be no Mac client?\r\rA: There is still no plans to develop a Mac client.\r\rQ: Any plans for new modes?\r\rA: There are looking at new modes but there are some issues that they need to work out. For example on a Capture the Flag mode, is Tracer allowed to capture the flag?\r\rQ: Movement skills are bound to Q, whereas utility skills are bound to E. This seems to be flipped for Mei. Is this supposed to be the case?\r\rA: You can rebind your own keys, and in the future they want to add per hero keybindings. Mei's wall technically isn't a movement skill but they will take the feedback into consideration.\r\rQ: After you buy the game and receive the 21 heroes, will you have to buy more Heroes?\r\rA: Right now there are only 21 heroes and that's all they're focusing on right now.\r\rQ: Are there any gameplay elements that you tried but didn't work?\r\rA: There are many things such as Bastion's ultimate which changed multiple times since last year's debut. Another example is Genji had his Katana as his primary but it was too overpowered.\r\rQ: How much support is there for modders?\r\rA: Philosophically, Blizzard support modding but there are no plans to do so for the spring launch. It's something they would like to explore but they need to find out how to make the code accessible. \r\rQ: Do you feel that if you add more heroes it will limit the diversity of the heroes?\r\rA: They haven't really thought about adding more than 21 heroes. They don't think they're in danger of limited design space but 21 feels like a good number for now.\r\rQ: Have you thought about skins that change the gender of the hero?\r\rA: The Origin skins were the first skins announced and they want skins to show their origin stories for now.\r\rQ: When can we see these new heroes in the beta?\r\rA: Probably next week.\r\rQ: Are you planning on implantation a way to change the way the UI looks?\r\rA: Right now you can hit Ctrl + Z to disable the entire UI and they don't want you to be able to fully customize your UI. However, there is a chance that you will be able to tweak certain aspects of the UI like a new reticule.\r\rWhat are the plans for eSports for Overwatch between both consoles and PC?\r\rA: There are plans for eSports but nothing they can reveal right now.

Commentaire de Pugsr

Commentaire de mancalledZ

Want to play Overwatch so bad! Love the 3 new heroes want to play Genji somethin fierce!

Commentaire de johnnyb8520

on 2015-11-06T19:32:37-06:00

I want mah beta access! Grrrr. :D

Commentaire de mcskiny1401

on 2015-11-06T19:34:42-06:00

Why blizz, why?\rOnly thing I want is beta acces!

Commentaire de manuhgod

on 2015-11-06T19:36:13-06:00

Didn't see anything about mac accessibility?

Commentaire de TutorialBlox

on 2015-11-06T19:37:34-06:00

Woah now we have yet another Blizzard game on multiple game consoles? Would wow work?

Commentaire de Dalphakans

on 2015-11-06T19:39:03-06:00

... I keep checking my inbox everyday waiting for my beta key

Commentaire de xIFip

on 2015-11-06T19:45:28-06:00

Mei is bae

Commentaire de larzor

on 2015-11-06T19:53:07-06:00

Genji looks cool, but the Hanzo and Genji conflict is not overly original.

Commentaire de inspersia

on 2015-11-06T19:53:21-06:00

Kinda tempted to get origins for the Baby Winston pet, but the game is underwhelming.

Commentaire de Adoxe

on 2015-11-06T19:54:13-06:00

Genji is so badass, holy... Torn between him and Reaper now.

Commentaire de Varuah

on 2015-11-06T19:55:53-06:00

I was kind of hoping we could use our friend's list and fight from PC on the PS4 or XBOne but I guess the tech isn't quite there yet....

Commentaire de Coldpaw

on 2015-11-06T19:57:25-06:00

Didn't see anything about mac accessibility?\r\rI'm sure they'll add some sort of support. Doesn't make sense if they wouldn't because all the other games AFAIK have mac compat.

Commentaire de Reckterino

on 2015-11-06T20:03:59-06:00

I think It will be really good game to play with my nongamer noob friends at LAN party :)

Commentaire de BaneChaos619

on 2015-11-06T20:06:47-06:00

They need to make Winston's space buddy Man-i-taur. I know they were joking but that sounds pretty damn epic lol.

Commentaire de Cantralian

on 2015-11-06T20:07:06-06:00

It's kind of interesting that they specifically say they don't want you to be able to customise your UI. I wonder if that has something to do with it being a console as well as a PC game or just because of the nature of the gameplay. (Customising my UI is a big thing with me.)

Commentaire de Euphyley

on 2015-11-06T20:12:26-06:00

Wow, the average game time is a lot shorter than I expected. Can't wait to give it a try!

Commentaire de synkronos

on 2015-11-06T20:13:19-06:00

They mentioned during the Q&A after the panel that they are not working on Mac support at the moment, but that Blizzard have traditionally been very supportive of Macs, so it is something that they would consider.